California - Desert Hot Springs

We spent 6 weeks in Desert Hot Springs, Ca. beginning March 11 to April 24. The first four weeks were at Sands RV and Golf Resort which has amazing amenities; 9 hole golf course, 8 pickle ball courts, a pool, 2 hot tubs and events throughout the week. We arrived toward the end of snowbird season and things were winding down but we did attend a musical performance put on by resort residents, played water volleyball a few times and Kevin golfed once. Unfortunately it was extremely hot the first week we were there (98 to 106 degrees) and then extremely windy (30-40 mph gusts) there after, so we never did play pickleball. We left for 12 days to help Tom and Tina move their sailboat from St Thomas to The Bahamas and then to Pasadena, thus the total active time there was about 2 weeks. We had a nice view of mountains and palm trees, especially once the class A’s in front of us left. For my birthday we went to a fabulous restaurant in Palm Springs; Eight4Nine. We also went to Tropicale for lunch to meet up with Kris and Hillary Gustafson. It was interesting to hear about their experiences as RV travel influencers; they said people would recognize them and at times almost stalk them. Yikes! Easter weekend we went to Pasadena to spend it with Sydney, Evan and Christian. We walked to the Rose Bowl stadium from their house with the dogs then walked the path around the stadium, approximately 3 miles. We toured the Gamble House (of Proctor and Gamble fame) that was built in the early 1900’s. The architecture is beautiful with detail carved wood panels and Japanese influence throughout the house. On April 11 we moved to Catalina Spa and RV Resort, just a few miles down from Sands. It was nice but we wished we had just stayed at Sands. On April 14th we drove to Joshua Tree National Park. There are several park entrances and I chose the farthest one from us so we could drive through Twentynine Palms as I always wanted to see it; I thought we might pass the marine base but it is further out. Also that entrance was closest to the more well known rock formations; arch, heart and skull. The other areas seemed to be mostly rocks and cactuses and we had seen plenty of that already. We hiked for about 3 miles then had lunch in Twentynine Palms.
For our next hike we rode the Palm Springs Arial Tram to the top of Mount San Jacinto State Park. The tram goes 8500+ feet up from the base and rotates 365 degrees, allowing a full view of the landscape. The hike at the top was beautiful and a nice reprieve from heat and cactuses! We hiked past pine trees, streams and snow patches!
Our final hike in Tahquitz Canyon was located on the Aqua Caliente Indian Reservation and led to a 60 foot waterfall. It was a good hike with rocks to climb up and over but not strenuous.
We did a lot of fun things while we were in Desert Hot Springs but the heat at the beginning (a climate anomaly supposedly) and the frequent high winds (standard) made for an unpleasant stay in general. The topography of the mountains around Desert Hot Springs puts it in a wind tunnel. Conversely Palm Springs is just outside the wind tunnel and while we were having 30 mph winds, Palm Springs had 4 mph winds! No doubt that’s why it was built in that location.
We tried to leave a day early to avoid driving in high winds; as Kevin was pulling out of the site I noticed the mud flap had come off on one side and was dragging. We fixed that and then noticed a problem with the system air pressure and saw that the chassis was hitting the rear wheel. A Mobil Truck and RV tech was sent out (thankful for roadside assistance who found one nearby and qualified) and they confirmed it was a bad airbag on the passenger side. They had to go a Freightliner service center close to LA to get a new one. Fortunately they were able to fix it that day and we were able to leave early the next morning.Read more